Current cancer treatment typically involves systemic chemotherapy whereby non-targeted small molecule or antibody directed cytotoxic agents preferentially enter, or bind to (in the case of antibody directed agents) and kill cancer cells by a variety of mechanisms. External beam radiation therapy (xRT), which is often combined with chemotherapy, kills cancer cells by inducing nuclear DNA double strand breaks resulting in cell-cycle death. Unlike systemic chemotherapy, xRT depends on the ability to accurately determine the anatomic location of the tumor. Surgical resection of tumors also depends on the ability to see the tumor and on complete removal, since residual tumor cells will quickly reestablish the tumor following surgery. Surgery and xRT are generally limited to the local treatment of malignant tumors and thus are limited in treating disseminated or metastatic disease, which is why chemotherapy is often used in conjunction with these treatment modalities. Although systemic chemotherapy is capable of reaching many distant metastatic sites, with the possible exception of brain metastases, for all too many patients, responses are typically short-lived (months to several years) and ultimately result in tumor recurrence.
Because the body's natural immune system is also capable of destroying cancer cells following their recognition, immunologic approaches are rapidly becoming more prevalent in cancer treatment paradigms. However, some cancer cells, and to a greater extent cancer stem cells, manage to initially avoid immune-surveillance and actually acquire the ability to evolve and ultimately survive by remaining relatively immune invisible [Gaipi et al, Immunotherapy 6:597-610, 2014].
One specific immunologic approach that is being increasingly investigated is “in situ vaccination,” a strategy that seeks to enhance tumor immunogenicity, generate tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) and drive a systemic anti-tumor immune response directed against “unvaccinated,” disseminated tumors. In in situ vaccination, a malignant solid tumor is injected with (or treated with) one or more agents that facilitate the release of tumor antigens while simultaneously providing pro-inflammatory signals to reverse the immune-tolerizing microenvironment of the tumor [Pierce et al, Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics 11(8):1901-1909, 2015; Marabelle et al, Clin. Cancer Res. 20(7):1747-56, 2014; Morris et al, Cancer Research, e-pub ahead of print, 2016]. Although recent data from clinical trials and pre-clinical models illustrate the potential of such an approach, there is a great need in the art for in-situ vaccination methods exhibiting improved systemic efficacy.
Radiation hormesis is a decades-old hypothesis that low doses of ionizing RT can be beneficial by stimulating the activation of natural protective repair mechanisms that are not activated in the absence of ionizing RT [Cameron and Moulder, Med. Phys. 25:1407, 1998]. The reserve repair mechanisms are hypothesized to be sufficiently effective when stimulated as to not only cancel the detrimental effects of ionizing RT but also inhibit disease not related to RT exposure. Perhaps related, the abscopal effect is a phenomenon reported in the 1950's, whereby, xRT treatment of one tumor actually causes shrinkage of another tumor outside the RT treatment area. Although rare, this phenomenon is thought to be dependent on activation of the immune system. Together, hormesis and the abscopal effect support the potential interaction and stimulation of the immune system by low dosage (immune stimulatory but non-cytotoxic) RT, which may then be combined with other immunologic approaches, such as in situ vaccination.
We have previously published that the combination of local xRT+in situ vaccination are potently synergistic in treating large established tumors in mice, when there is a single tumor present [Morris et al, Cancer Research, e-pub ahead of print, 2016].
We have surprisingly discovered (and disclose herein) that the combination of in situ vaccination and xRT does not result in inhibited tumor growth in the presence of a second, non-radiated tumor. Apparently, the non-radiated tumor exhibits a dampening effect (which we have designated as “concomitant immune tolerance”) on the immunomodulatory effect of the xRT and in situ vaccine on the radiated tumor. This concomitant immune tolerance can be overcome, enabling efficacy of in situ vaccination, when xRT is given to all areas of tumor. However, xRT cannot be effectively used in combination with in situ vaccination methods in the presence of multiple tumors, particularly if the tumors are not few in number, or if the location of one or more of the tumors is not precisely known, or if it is not feasible to deliver xRT to all sites of tumor. Accordingly, in combination with in situ vaccination, there is a need for improved methods of delivering an immunomodulatory dose of RT to all tumors within a subject, regardless of their number and anatomic location.